Field of the Art
The disclosure relates to the field of electronic devices, and more particularly to the field of input and output methods for interaction within software applications.
Discussion of the State of the Art
In the field of electronic devices, separate handheld controllers are commonly used to enable a user to provide interaction or receive feedback from a host device, such as a personal computer or a video gaming console. These controllers may be connected via a wired or a wireless connection, and generally are paired with only a single host device at any given time. When a user wishes to utilize multiple controllers, they must be connected individually to the host device (for example, connecting both a keyboard and a mouse to a personal computer, using two separate ports on the computer). This requires a number of separate communication connections between a host device and controllers, and if a host device or controller have mismatched communication hardware, they are incompatible and cannot be used. Additionally, controllers generally are designed for a particular purpose (such as for a particular type of video game or computer application), and require a user to interact with them in a specific fashion, such as to hold the controller in a particular manner to have manual access to all of its functions. This can be awkward or even unhealthy for the user, and restrictive of the manner with which they interact with the device.
Additionally, users typically interact with a fitness device, whether viewing or not viewing a static screen. For example, while running on a treadmill a user may choose to view a static screen displaying a television show. The elements in a television show are static, in that the elements do not change behavior based on the user's interactions with the television show, but instead perform predetermined actions. An example of a dynamic screen is that of a video game. The user interacts with a remote and influences the activity of the elements in the video game. At most, the user may interact with the screen performing an activity independent of actions related to interacting with the fitness device.
Furthermore, with the rapidly-expanding virtual reality industry, new interaction methods are being explored including a variety of controllers for gaming, wands, and motion-based input devices including gloves and camera-based hand tracking. However, these devices all focus on interacting with a user's hands, and ignore other parts of the body that could be used to improve interaction and immersion, while also expanding the possibilities for data collection.
What is needed, is a means to enable users to connect a variety of control and tracking devices to a host device regardless of their communication means, that also addresses the need for controllers that a user may interact with regardless of their position or movement, for interaction with mixed-reality electronic applications.